Synergy
by WritingOnTheStars
Summary: Phoenix and Maya come to an agreement over burgers, tears and dirty laundry.


Set right after Turnabout Sisters. Currently a one shot, might turn into a longer fic depending on my inspiration.

* * *

"That was awesome!" Maya chirped as they out of the local burger joint. "It's been so long since I've been in the city!"

"Where do you live, anyway?" Phoenix asked, a carry out bag with three more burgers clutched in his hand. Maya had insisted that they were necessary for late night hunger, and he just didn't have the heart to deny her anything.

For a moment she paused, starring up at the blanket of stars with wounded eyes. "For now, I live here," she responded after a moment, her voice a bit darker. Phoenix watched her walk a few steps ahead and turn toward him swiftly, her smile back to its full one thousand watts. "I'll stay with you!"

The bag nearly slipped from his grip. "Wha…?" he deadpanned. She was seventeen and young and he was twenty-three and older and it just wasn't right and-

"Quit thinking so much!" she scolded. "I'm your assistant at the office now, I can't be making a long train ride every morning just to come to work!"

It was a good point. He highly doubted that he could run the office by himself, and if he was completely honest, he didn't want to be alone. Plus, he could see the double meaning behind Mia's note to Maya.

'_While she takes care of you, watch over her._'

He knew how important Maya was to Mia, but he thought that it was still improper. "Why not stay at Mia's apartment?"

At that she completely stopped, and Phoenix immediately wished that he had just accepted her idea without opening his big mouth. "I… I don't think I'm ready for that yet," she replied. Her face was oddly blank, and he could see the pain bubbling behind her eyes.

"Okay, Maya," he sighed, settling his hand on her shoulder. "You can stay with me for a while."

Phoenix thought that she might be severely bipolar or something, because she went from mourning her sister to smiling happily in less than two seconds. "Great!" she exclaimed, pulling the burger bag out of Phoenix's hand. Suddenly she moved behind him and hopped on his back. His hands immediately went to the inside of her kneecaps as she wrapped her arms around his neck and pointed forward. "Let's go, I'm tired!" Maya demanded, tugging on his tie lightly.

"I'm not a horse…" he mumbled, but he just kept walking. It wasn't like she was very heavy, but he was glad that they were only a block away from his apartment. "So Maya," he said after a moment. "What kind of skills do you have?"

"Hmm…" she hummed, and he blushed furiously as her breath brushed against his ear. "Well, I can read!"

"I suppose that's good," he said slowly. "Anything else?"

She was quiet for a moment, and he could practically see the worried expression on her face. "I'm a quick study!" she assured him, and he could hear the slight edge of panic in her voice.

"That's great!"

She was quiet for a moment. "Really?"

"Yeah! I'm new to running a firm, and you're new to being an assistant. We'll learn together, okay?"

He felt her chin rest on his shoulder, and he could see her mouth twist into a content smile out of the corner of his eye. "Yeah!" she murmured, hugging herself a bit closer to his back.

Though he knew he was too old for her, Phoenix couldn't help but blush at the feeling of her body against his back. She wasn't curvy like Mia, but she was womanly enough for him to feel a bit uncomfortable. Fortunately, they had arrived at his apartment building. "This is it," he said, nodding up to the tall, tattered looking building.

He could practically see her frown. "I thought lawyers made a lot of money?" she asked, and he knew that he would have to get used to that innocent bluntness.

"Well, I've only had two cases. My first was for a friend that hasn't paid me, and your's…" They both fell silent, and she gently slid off of his back. "And you don't have to worry about that."

She looked at him with critical eyes for a moment, but just shrugged. "Well, let's go! I was serious about being tired. It's hard to sleep in jail."

"I bet," he replied with a smile, opening the door for her. They made their way to the top floor silently, and he stood in front of the door. The keys fumbled in his hands for a minute as he thought about the state of his apartment. "I apologize for the mess," he muttered as he finally unlocked the door.

"That's okay, I'm sure it's not that… bad…" she said, her words failing her as she stepped inside. Clothes and pizza boxes were strewn everywhere, and the faint stench of dirty laundry permeated the air. "You can so tell that you don't have a girlfriend," she commented as she made her way inside and started pulling things off of the couch.

"You can sleep in my bed, Maya-"

"No way!" she replied incredulously.

He felt the sweat forming under his collar. "I didn't mean together-"

"I'm the guest! I get the couch," she said firmly.

Phoenix sighed. Either Maya was very innocent or she was ignoring his clumsy speech for his sake. "Alright, if you insist."

"I do!" She began rummaging through the couch cushions, pulling out two remote controls, three socks and a handful of change. "Just get me a pillow and a blanket!"

He nodded and grabbed one of the pillows off of his messy bed and a blanket from his closet that his mother had given him last Christmas. "What about clothes?" he asked as he handed her the bedding.

"Since I don't have anything with me, you'll just have to lend me something to sleep in. I'll go home tomorrow and get some clothes so I can stay here for a while." She began forming her makeshift bed and Phoenix wondered if he even had any clean clothes for her to use. Turning back to his bedroom, he decided that he would clean tomorrow while Maya was gone. Luckily he had one clean t-shirt and one clean pair of boxers. The thought of any girl wearing his clothes made him blush, but it was different for Maya. She was Mia's sister, so there was some oddly sacred aura about her. Or perhaps that was due to the acolyte's clothes.

Shrugging off his embarrassment, he returned to the living room. "Here you go," he said as Maya continued to clean up the area around the couch.

"Thanks!" she said happily, sniffing the clothes carefully. After they seemed to pass the scent test, he pointed her toward the bathroom. "I'm using your toothbrush," she called, and he just chuckled.

He picked up the bag of burgers Maya had abandoned on the coffee table and took them to the fridge. An odd smell met his nose as he stashed them away, and he decided that finding the rotten food could wait for the morning.

Maya quickly emerged from the bathroom and he turned. The sight of her in his larger clothing made his pulse rise and he could feel the flush on his face. Seemingly unaware of his horrible male hormones, she just sat on the couch and began taking apart her top knot. Purple beads and pins fell one by one to the coffee table, and her previously tame locks became a wild mane of raven colored hair. Phoenix was entranced at the sight. His mind drifted back to another time, when a ruby haired girl sat in his dorm room at Ivy U and unraveled her braids-

But that was dangerous thinking and he quickly reminded himself that he was different and Maya most definitely was not Dahlia, despite the odd resemblance. But that had to just be in his mind, right?

Suddenly his vision was full of Maya's smile. "Water!" she exclaimed, and he pointed her toward the cupboard where he kept his glasses. "Three glasses?" she asked. "No girlfriend, no friends… You're kinda pathetic."

He sighed, but there was no venom in her tone. "Goodnight, Maya," he said gently, patting her on the head lightly.

She batted his hand away huffily, but turned and smiled again. "Night, Nick."

Phoenix changed his clothes quickly and plopped into bed. The ceiling wasn't very interesting tonight, and no matter how many times he tossed and turned, sleep evaded him. He figured that he was just nervous. The law firm was his, and although it was kind of exciting, it was also terrifying. What would he do without Mia's guidance? Hell, what would he do without her at all?

With a groan he covered his eyes with his palms. There was so much to think about: paying bills, finding clients, defending said clients, paying bills, figuring out Mia's odd organizational method, training Maya, paying bills-

Suddenly his door swung open and he nearly screamed in shock. Maya stood in the doorway, her face obscured by shadows. "Maya? Is everything alright?" he asked. She didn't move. "Um… The burgers are in the fridge if you're hungry. Though I wouldn't inhale too deeply if you get in there…"

Instead of heading to the kitchen, she approached his bed. He began to panic, but as soon as she stepped into the light, his fear was quickly replaced by sadness. Tears streamed down her cheeks and silent sobs shook her body. The look in her eyes made his heart feel like it was shattering.

"Every time I close my eyes…" she whispered painfully, "I see her… I see her dying, right under my fingers… and I can't do anything…" Her hands were balled into fists at her sides, and he could practically feel the fingernails digging into her palms. "Blood… so much blood… Sis…"

"Maya," he muttered, and she flung herself into his bed. Before he could think, Maya was crying into his t-shirt. He wrapped his arms around her as her pain became his own, and the reality of Mia's death started crashing down around him. He would never see her smile, or listen to her lecture him, or groan at her awful puns. Maya's tears were soaking through his shirt and his fingers automatically began running through her hair slowly. For a long time he just held her and let himself sort through the pain and sadness, and he wasn't surprised when the tears started flowing down his own cheeks.

After a while, he noticed that Maya had fallen asleep. He didn't have the heart to return her to the couch, so he tried to disentangle her body from his own and move to the couch himself. When he tried to loosen her grip on his shirt, she just gripped tighter. Her legs were locked around one of his own, and he quickly came to the conclusion that moving without waking the young woman would be impossible.

He tried to look anywhere but her. The ceiling was still uninteresting, and the sky was clear and unchanging through his window. He watched the seconds tick away on his clock for nearly twenty minutes, until his eyes eventually found their way to Maya's face. She was completely relaxed, excluding her grip on him, and he found the look enchanting. The skin around her eyes was still red from crying, but her mouth hung open limply. Phoenix smiled; drooling seemed to fit her personality. Watching her faint breathing was enough to calm him, and he was finally able to drift to sleep.

-----

The morning sunlight finally permeated his eyelids and he sat up, stretching his arms high above his head. As he blinked groggily, the events of the previous night rushed back to him. His head practically swiveled all the way around as he looked for Maya. Instead, he found a clean room. All his dirty clothes were gone, and everything was neatly organized on his dresser.

Hopping out of bed, he ventured into the living room to find the same thing. "Morning, sleepy head!" Maya called happily from the kitchen, once again bedecked in her acolyte's robe. He found her closing the door to the fridge with a satisfied smirk. Suddenly he realized that his apartment no longer smelled like the bottom of a foot.

"Maya… you didn't have to-"

Her finger pressed against his lips and she winked. "Don't say anything, it was the least I could do." She turned and began organizing fresh groceries into his cupboards. "While I go home to collect some things, I expect you to cook up a good lunch!" she demanded. "I'm fairly useless at cooking."

"Alright…" It was all too much for Phoenix to take in at once. His apartment hadn't been this clean since the day he moved in. Maya, someone he had met three days ago, was deep cleaning his home for nothing in return. Maya, his new assistant, slept in his bed last night. Maya, his mentor's little sister-

"Nick…" she muttered, turning to him. She couldn't seem to look into his eyes, and she bit her lip in a nervous manner. "Thanks. For last night. I'm sure I'll be alright from now on."

A smile crossed his face as he watched her cheeks light up in a bright pink. Hooking her chin with his finger, he tilted her face up toward him. "Maya, don't worry. It's going to be difficult. We both lost someone very important." She sniffled a bit, but held her jaw firm. "Remember what you said last night, in the office?"

"That I wanted a burger?" she said, her tone cheeky.

"We're partners," he corrected with a laugh. "So we'll get through this together."

She stared straight into his eyes. Her gaze didn't waiver at all, and for a moment he felt like Mia was standing before him again. But then her hand came up to clutch his and she nodded. "A team."

And Phoenix knew at that moment that it was the beginning of something great.


End file.
